View of Mount Fuji from a tea house
c. 1820s
Medium
Color woodblock print with metallic pigments; shikishiban, surimono
Dimensions
21.6 × 18.6 cm (8 9/16 × 7 3/8 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
23414
Art Historical Context
In the bustling world of Edo-period Japan (1603–1868), Keisai Eisen (179–1848) crafted this enchanting *View of Mount Fuji from Tea House* around the 1820s. A master of ukiyo-e—the "pictures of the floating world" movement celebrating everyday beauty—Eisen was renowned for his delicate depictions of courtesans and landscapes. Here, he frames the iconic, snow-capped Mount Fuji through the intimate lattice window of a tea house, serene nature with human tranquility during a time when such prints captured fleeting pleasures amid Japan's rigid social structure. This intimate shikishiban surimono ...
About the Artist
Keisai Eisen · 1790–1848
Keisai Eisen (1790–1848), born Ikeda Yoshinobu in Edo (modern Tokyo), emerged as one of the late Edo period's most prolific ukiyo-e masters. The son of the renowned calligrapher and Kanō-school painter Ikeda Shigeharu, Eisen was immersed in the arts from childhood. He apprenticed under Kanō Hakkeisai, adopting the art name "Keisai" in homage to his teacher, and later studied bijin-ga (images of be...